Apple Brand Value at $153 Billion Overtakes Google for Top Spot

Apple Inc. (AAPL), maker of the iPhone, iPad and iMac, overtook search-engine giant Google Inc. (GOOG) to become the world’s most valuable brand, WPP Plc said in a report today.

Apple’s brand value climbed 84 percent in the past year to $153.3 billion, WPP’s Millward Brown unit said. Google’s brand lost 2 percent to $111.5 billion, ending four years atop the rankings, while International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) climbed 17 percent to be the No. 3, ahead of McDonald’s Corp.(MCD)

New versions of the iPhone and iMac, and the introduction of the iPad tablet, helped Cupertino, California-based Apple almost double sales and profit for the latest quarter. Apple, which overtook Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), as the most-valuable technology company by market value in May 2010, boosted its share of the global phone market and is the leading seller of tablet computers.

“It’s clear that every single Apple employee, from Steve Jobs and Tim Cook to the summer interns, see protecting and nurturing that brand as a top priority,” Millward Brown Chief Executive Officer Eileen Campbell wrote in the report. “Tablet computing also drove value growth not just for Apple, but also for the providers who support yet another networked device.”

Facebook Inc., operator of the world’s largest social- networking site, had a 246 percent climb in brand value, the fastest, to become the No. 35 brand at $19.1 billion, according to the report. Baidu Inc., Google’s Chinese rival, posted the second-fastest climb at 141 percent, to be the No. 29 brand at $22.6 billion.

Twelve of the top 100 global brands were from China, led by China Mobile Ltd. (941) at No. 9 and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. at No. 11. Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), which ranked 14th, overtook Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT), which ranked 15th, to become the most-valuable retail brand.

IPad 2 Shortage Gives XOOM an Opening

Motorola Mobility Holdings lined up notably strong U.S. distribution for the launch of the XOOM WiFi.

Amazon.com (ticker: AMZN), Best Buy (BBY), Costco Wholesale (COST), RadioShack (RSH), Sam's Club, Staples (SPLS) and Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) form an unusually broad launch pad for the tablet. The price is set at $599, though we expect several of the retailers to debut the device with promotional pricing around $550.

Motorola (MMI) is now set to launch its WiFi-only tablet two weeks before Research in Motion (RIMM) gets its similar, though smaller Playbook device out, likely close to the $500 retail price point. The notably cheaper price of the WiFi version compared to its 3G sibling is, in our view, likely to help sales.

The current [ Apple (AAPL)] iPad 2 shortage, combined with exceptionally broad distribution of the XOOM WiFi, gives Motorola a good opening, in our view. We expect the sales of Xoom WiFi to be boosted by what we view as a surprisingly thin early supply of iPad 2.

In our view, Apple left a lot of money on the table when it could not deliver sufficient launch volumes for its new tablet. The wait time for the iPad 2 is now up to five weeks at Apple.com. Our research indicates that the reported recent chilling of the Apple-Samsung relationship can probably be traced to Samsung's challenges in getting the new A5 processor ramped up fast enough to meet Apple's demands.

We now expect Motorola to comfortably beat our 400,000-unit XOOM projection for first-quarter 2011. Some extra volumes are likely to come from what seems like a robust series of European XOOM distribution deals. We expect XOOM to be launched by the British electronics powerhouses Dixon's and Carphone Warehouse in the U.K. in early April.

Motorola is likely to ship some XOOM units to Europe and Asia during the last two weeks of first-quarter 2011. We believe Dixon's, Carphone Warehouse and [Deutsche Telekom's] T-Mobile in Germany are all committing to relatively strong marketing support for the XOOM. Our research indicates European distributors and operators are worried about Apple getting a stranglehold of the tablet market and are set to promote [ Google (GOOG)] Android alternatives strongly this spring. Motorola is in a good position here, in our view, because the Honeycomb tablet launches of vendors like LG and HTC seem to be somewhat delayed from original launch targets.

We believe several recent store checks indicating tepid sales of Motorola Atrix phone at AT&T (T) are misleading. Amazon is undercutting AT&T notably on Atrix pricing, at $130 versus $200. A similar situation took place last autumn during the Blackberry Torch launch -- the meaningfully lower Amazon.com price drove consumers to buying the Torch from the Web retailer, triggering a series of misleading store checks that underestimated national Torch sales substantially. This in turn created the backdrop for Research in Motion's revenue and earnings-per-share surprises for the autumn quarter.

We believe 50%-70% of sales of some new models now take place at Web retailers, particularly when there is a notable price gap between Web retailers and traditional stores.

We believe Motorola is on track to sell 500,000 units of the Atrix during first-quarter 2011, beating our original expectations somewhat. The delay of the HTC Thunderbolt launch at Verizon Wireless [a joint venture of Verizon Communications (VZ) and Vodafone Group (VOD)] has helped a bit, in our view. We expect strong Verizon marketing support for the Motorola Bionic in April as the carrier starts its big LTE marketing push.

Apple May Have Sold 500,000 IPad 2 Tablets on Debut Weekend, Analyst Says

Apple Inc. may have sold as many as 500,000 iPad 2 computers after retail outlets ran out of the tablet-style device on its debut weekend, said Piper Jaffray Cos. analyst Gene Munster.
Stores run by Apple, Target Corp. and Best Buy Co. contacted by Munster’s team had sold out of the device, he said in a research note yesterday. Online orders via Apple’s website are taking up to a month for delivery, up from less than a week when sales began.
Early estimates suggest demand for iPads remains buoyant even as competitors such as Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. enter the tablet market. Apple sold more than 300,000 units of the first iPad in the 24 hours after its April debut.
“IPads are sold out across virtually all channels,” Munster said in the research note. “We were unable to find any availability.”
Munster said Apple will probably surpass his early prediction that 5.5 million iPads would be sold this quarter, which ends this month. Munster, based in Minneapolis, said that 70 percent of the customers surveyed by his team were first-time iPad buyers, signaling Apple is expanding its user base.
Apple may have sold three times as many iPad 2s in the debut as the first iPad, according to Trip Chowdhry, an analyst with Global Equities Research. All of the handful of Best Buy stores surveyed by Global Equities sold out of the iPad in four minutes, Chowdhry wrote.
Thinner, Lighter Model
The new model, which comes in white and black, is lighter, thinner, includes a more powerful processor and has front and rear cameras. It ranges in price from $499 for a base model to $829 for the top-of-the-line version.
Materials used in the iPad 2 cost about $326.60, according to research firm IHS ISuppli, which based its analysis on a version that has 32 gigabytes of memory and works with the mobile phone standard know as global system for mobile communications. That’s up from $320 for the earlier model.
Apple expanded the number of retail outlets where the device was available, including 236 retails stores in the U.S. and thousands of AT&T Inc., Verizon Wireless, Best Buy, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., and Target stores.
“Demand for the next-generation iPad has been amazing and we are working hard to get iPad 2 into the hands of every customer who wants one as quickly as possible,” said Trudy Muller, a spokeswoman for Apple. The company has not issued a first-weekend sales figure for the iPad 2.
Apple similarly didn’t have enough of the iPhone 4 in the days after its June introduction.
102 Tablets In Works
Through December, Apple had sold 14.8 million iPads, generating $9.6 billion in sales, making it one of the fastest- selling consumer-electronic devices in history.
Rivals including Motorola Mobility, Samsung Electronics Co., Research In Motion Ltd. and Hewlett-Packard Co. are introducing tablet computers to compete with the iPad. Overall, there are 102 tablets from 64 makers either on sale or in development, according to consulting firm PRTM.
On March 11, hundreds of people lined up at the Fifth Avenue store in New York. Store workers handed out free hot chocolate and water to those waiting.
“I’m a student, and I hate carrying my laptop to school. It’s like five pounds and the iPad is a lot lighter,” said Jay Narang, 19, a sophomore at Baruch College. “I was going to get the first one, but I knew they were going to come out with one with cameras, so why not just wait?”
Francis Degode, 44, lives outside of Brussels and said he came to New York for the release because it would take too long to get one at home. Degode got in line at 6 a.m. in the rain on March 11 to get his first iPad.
“The iPad 2 is faster, and there are two cameras. It’s very useful,” Degode said. “It’s the gadget of the year.”